Southern Cayuga Central school board approves $16 million budget

Aurora, NY -- The Southern Cayuga Central school board on Monday unanimously approved a 2010-11 budget that lowers spending, raises taxes, eliminates several positions and provides smaller raises for administrators and faculty than initially budgeted, a school official said.

The spending plan totals $16,072,800, about 2.7 percent less than the current budget of $16,515,886, Superintendent Mary Kay Worth said.

However, the tax levy would increase by 2.7 percent and raise property taxes by about $36 a year for someone in the district who owns a house assessed at $100,000, Worth said.

The budget, if approved by taxpayers on May 18, would eliminate 7.5 teaching positions, reduce several full-time teachers to part time and also cut 3.5 support staff positions, she said.

Also, teachers agreed to reduce their 2010-2011 raises to 2 percent from 4 percent, which amounts to an $84,000 savings, Worth said. Three principals and a fourth administrator offered to take a $1,500 raise next year instead of the 4 percent increase they were due, saving the district an additional $8,000, she said.

The spending plan appropriates an additional $20,000 in funding for all of the district’s merged sports teams with Union Springs; the board had considered cutting the teams. The budget also calls for using $650,000 in fund balance to help offset the loss of about $1 million in state aid. The district initially proposed using $250,000 in fund balance, Worth said.

The superintendent also said the district has no immediate plans to follow through on the board’s decision to eventually close Emily Howland Elementary School, mainly because of declining enrollment.

“It won’t happen next year and it won’t happen the following year,” Worth said.